Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A flagellated male gamete produced by an antheridium, found in certain algae, seedless plants, and gymnosperms.
- noun A spermatozoon.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun See
spermatozooid .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Biol.) The male germ cell in animals and plants, the essential element in fertilization; a microscopic animalcule-like particle, usually provided with one or more cilia by which it is capable of active motion. In animals, the familiar type is that of a small, more or less ovoid head, with a delicate threadlike cilium, or tail. Called also
spermatozoön . In plants the more usual term isantherozoid .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biology A
motile ,ciliated malegamete produced in theantheridium of analga ,fern orgymnosperm
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a motile male gamete of a plant such as an alga or fern or gymnosperm
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The movie seems to balance both views, even rewarding the Peter Pan character of Jayne with what she most desires -- a child, a wish realized in a gorgeous surreal drug trip with a teenager (Jayne floats in the stars and is met by a hyper-real spermatozoid) -- at the same time as it offers a practical resolution to the father issue for Laura.
Karin Badt: Berlinale 2009: Mitchell Lichtenstein's Happy Tears 2009
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Owing to the small size of the spermatozoids, and the opacity of the eggs, it is impossible to see whether more than one spermatozoid penetrates it; but from what is known in other cases it is not likely.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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The former divides repeatedly, until a mass of about thirty-two sperm cells is formed, each giving rise to a large spirally-coiled spermatozoid.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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The antheridia (Fig. 26, _F_, _G_) are small oblong cells, at first colorless, but when ripe containing numerous glistening, reddish brown dots, each of which is part of a spermatozoid.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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_J_, a small portion of one of these more magnified, showing a spermatozoid in each cell.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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Of the inner cells, the second series, while not increasing in diameter, elongate, assuming an oblong form, and from the innermost are developed long filaments (_I_, _J_) composed of a single row of cells, in each of which is formed a spermatozoid.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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The antheridia (Fig. 29, _E_) are hemispherical masses of closely set colorless cells, each of which develops a single spermatozoid which, like the tetraspores, is destitute of cilia, and is dependent upon the movement of the water to convey it to the neighborhood of the procarp.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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As a result of the entrance of the spermatozoid (fertilization), the egg cell becomes surrounded by a thick brown wall, and becomes a resting spore.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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If the latter is not fertilized, the inner walls of the neck cells turn brown, and the egg cell dies; but if a spermatozoid penetrates to the egg cell, the latter develops a wall and begins to grow, forming the embryo or young sporogonium.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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By careful observation the student may possibly be able to follow the spermatozoid into the oögonium, where it enters the egg cell at the clear spot on its surface.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
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